Homoerotic interfaith poetry book explores “lust for the holy”

Gay visions of Christ are part of a homoerotic interfaith adventure that awaits in “The Daring of Paradise,” the newest poetry book by Toronto teacher Brian Day.

He writes about what he calls “the lust for the holy” across the boundaries of Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam.

His latest book features several new homoerotic poems about Jesus, including “Pursuing our Pleasure in the Body of Christ” (reprinted with permission below) and “Krishna and Jesus in Algonquin Park.” (reprinted in full in my previous post “What if Christ and Krishna made love?”) The new book also provides a glimpse of Jesus enjoying a naked interlude with Guru Nanak, founder of Sikhism.

Day blends gay and religious themes in a way that illuminates both queer experience and all spiritual expression. Visit Lambda Literary Review for my full review of the book.

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Pursuing our Pleasure

 in the Body of Christ

By Brian Day

There is no further body of Christ but this smoothed aggregate

of human flesh. We are the athletic limbs

of his swimming through the world, the hands of all

his practical acts. But hands and limbs are not all of a body,

and those parts of Christ we might conceal

must elicit from our mouths a particular esteem.

The body of Christ is built for delight, and not one

of its vivifying organs can be scorned. The kindling sites

of our communal body take part in our sacred

and carnal commission, this ignition of flesh in its knowledge

as flesh. We caress the completeness of our one body, explore it

with palms, alert it with fists. We lick a glistening

array of physiques, knowing the foreign and knowing

ourselves, knowing Christ in each of his tissues and hollows,

straining toward completer knowledge in this keen narcissistic

congregation of flesh. We train each finger, each muscle, each

follicle to take its place in the communion of Christ. And we,

so flooded with desire for the countless strong members

of the body of Christ, what should we in desire

strive for? We would strive to be those zones

of the holy within the common body of Christ, the seats

of pleasure where he excites himself

into vibrant and ever more electric being.

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Biblical references:

1 Corinthians 12.27 and Romans 12.4-5


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Related links:
Conjuring Jesus poems: Homoerotic taste of heaven
(review of the book “Conjuring Jesus” by Brian Day)

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This post is part of the Queer Christ series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. The series gathers together visions of the queer Christ as presented by artists, writers, theologians and others.

Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
http://www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com/
Jesus in Love Blog on LGBT spirituality and the arts

Conjuring Jesus poems: Homoerotic taste of heaven

A vibrantly alive Jesus, complete with homoerotic desires, emerges from the poetry of Brian Day in his new book “Conjuring Jesus.”

From the very first poem, Day delves into the bisexuality that Jesus inherited from his ancestor King David. Some of the most wonderful poems present what I call a “gay Jesus.” He bonds with his male Beloved, sits beside a near-naked young man, gets trapped in gay love triangle with Judas, and endures the humiliation of being called “faggot.” In “Better Not to Marry” (reprinted below), Jesus praises the “unmarrying brand of men” that God created.

Day, a Toronto teacher, conjures up a Jesus who is both sexual and spiritual, “wholly versatile” and “an unscrupulous party boy” who eats and drinks with sinners. Day distills the essence of Jesus in a sensuous, playful way that remains true to the human spirit and to the spirit of the gospels. His poems liberate the soul with a fresh, unrestricted view of Jesus.

The 49 short poems in this slim volume work both as literature and as devotional reading for the open-minded. They are arranged to follow Jesus from his baptism through his death and resurrection, with parables and miracles sprinkled throughout.

Like Day, I wrote about a queer Christ in my “Jesus in Love” novels. I know how hard it is to “conjure” a Jesus who is erotically alive while transcending all categories of male or female, gay or straight, God or human. I appreciate the deft style with which Day accomplishes the task. For example, in “Jesus, Versatile” he manages to convey Jesus’ own ecstatic union with God, “entering, entered, everywhere at once.”

Day’s best poems, and there are many, focus on emotion and embodiment. Readers will either love or hate the few poems that stray into other territory, such as equating Jesus with Mohammad and Buddha. I personally enjoyed the poem where Jesus and Krishna “meet as bridegrooms long promised to each other.” I look forward to his next project, which will blend homoerotic and interfaith themes.

Since Day writes so well about men, perhaps it is inevitable that some of his poems about women are less satisfying. I do object to his repeated and distracting use of “man” to refer to all people.

I read “Conjuring Jesus” at bedtime, a few poems per night. They sweetly opened my heart before I closed my eyes for a good night’s sleep. It’s also suitable to read “Conjuring Jesus” right alongside the Bible, thanks to a list of Biblical references for each poem at the end of the book.

Day writes of a Jesus who offers “the pleasures of sliding into our own promised land -- this delicious, indiscriminate view of heaven.” I recommend that you taste heaven now by reading “Conjuring Jesus.”
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Click here to read the poem “Better Not to Marry” from the new book.

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Related links:
Brian Day: Homoerotic interfaith poetry book explores “lust for the holy”
(Jesus in Love review of Brian Day's 2013 book "The Daring of Paradise")

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“Conjuring Jesus”
By Brian Day
Guernica Editions
ISBN: 1550712748
Paperback, $13, 96 pages

Poem: “Better Not to Marry” by Brian Day

Special thanks to Brian Day for permission to post the following poem from his new book “Conjuring Jesus.”

Better Not to Marry
by Brian Day

Jesus, speaking to his intimate
circle of friends, assures them
it’s better not to marry
but to wander unfamilied
in the company of men. He calls
his merry band to not-marry
with him, and conceives
of a Creator who, from the womb,
fashions this unmarrying brand of men
and calls them as prophets
in the birth of a kingdom.

Jesus extols the flexible eunuch
who sets aside his masculine habits
and surrenders himself to the wills
of men. He wishes all his followers
to be men and eunuchs, blessed
with that angelic ambiguity
of gender as they are entered
and enter the gates of heaven.

Jesus looks forward to that far
resurrection when marriage itself
will be finally moulted
and all will float freely
as bachelors and boys.
They’ll drift promiscuous
through heavenly forms,
their bodies as permeable
and as shimmering as words.

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Biblical references: Matthew 19:10-12, 22:29-30

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Related links:
Brian Day: Homoerotic interfaith poetry book explores “lust for the holy”
(Jesus in Love review of Brian Day's 2013 book "The Daring of Paradise")

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“Better Not to Marry” appears in the book “Conjuring Jesus” by Brian Day. He studied at Trent University and the University of Toronto. Day is the author of “Love is Not Native to My Blood” (2000) and “Azure” (2004), both published by Guernica Editions. He teaches in Toronto.

Click here for Kittredge Cherry’s review of “Conjuring Jesus.